European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - July 21, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Slovakia using new Freedom to make old mistakes by Lance Gay Scripps Howard news service drive from Amsterdam to Paris these Days and you Speed past shuttered customs posts  belgian and French Borders without stopping. But drive from the czech capital of Prague to the slovak capita of Bratislava and you will be stopped at b6rder posts freshly dug from the Cornfields Complete with barbed wire High intensity spotlights and surly Green uniformed customs agents. While wealthy Western Europe is dismantling its Borders impoverished Eastern Europe is hard at work building new ones. You find new Border posts everywhere these Days in Yugoslavia now shattered into five new nation states with a sixth emerging in that part of Croatia known As the Rijina. So much for dreamers like european Community president Jacques Delors who envisioned a a Europe. Without Borders Quot and a peaceful Quot United states of Europe Quot in the Heady Days of 1989, when the Berlin Wall was breached. These new Borders born out of re surging nationalism in Eastern Europe won t go away soon. \ Vienna is just 40 Miles West of this slovak capital but to impoverished residents of Bratislava it s just As foreign today As when soviet troops manned the Danube River Crossings into Austria. A we knew that through history Slovakia and Austria were the same and on an equal basis Quot recalls Andrei Hoffman an interpreter who was the among the first to set up his own private business in Bratislava. A but we did not know How far apart we have become Quot 1 enter slovak nationalist and strongman prime minister Vladimir Mesiar. It f Ermant Jvon Poland Prague a Bratislava czech re Jim met s10vak re jr7 Vienna arvo austrian it Hungary amps the Good things in life could All be theirs Mesiar promised if Slovakia would just a emancipate Quot itself from the Yoke of those insufferably arrogant czech reformers who were suppressing Slovakia s culture and threatening to shut the steel Mills and tank plants Stalin had Given them. Quo Western diplomats noted that half of unified Czechoslovakia s budget went to Slovakia with Only a third of the country s population. But Mesiar vowed that once Slovakia a stood up to Prague Quot Western tourists and investors would pour across the Borders to taste the delights of Bratislava capital of Hungary from the 16th to 18th centuries and there would be a sheaf of orders for t-72 tanks from Iraq and Libya to keep everyone at work. Mesiar pushed through the velvet divorce and slovakian nationalists got their wish. ,. A year later the new country is on its Knees. There were no orders for tanks Western investors never turned up and tourists shunned Bratislava s depressing socialist architecture in favor of the baroque Beauty of Prague where they spent $1.2 billion on hotels and restaurants last year. Czechs say the divorce is the Best thing that Ever happened. Quot it s As if we put All our problems on one ship and sent it out to sea Quot said one czech entrepreneur. Mesiar  the czechs for what happened contending they got the better part of the divorce settlement by claiming the czechoslovakian Flag and Short changing Slovakia in payments for jointly owned czechoslovakian properties like the National airline and tourist office. But businesses and Farmers in Eastern Slovakia discovered that the new Borders Between Slovakia and the czech Republic meant they Tost their traditional markets in the North As Well As Access to czech processing plants. Slovakia last year led Europe in the size of its economic collapse. The split has been devastating to local governments which Are forced to live on one tenth of the income they had in 1992, when Prague paid the Bills. And the cuts came As unemployment costs were soaring. Without Prague As a whipping boy Mesiar now is blaming enemies within and his political allies have attacked the press Quot for consciously damaging the slovak Economy and the reputation and foreign Confidence of  hate campaigns have been directed at radio free Europe for broadcasting news the government views As being unfairly critical. Slovakia s prospects Are dismal and getting Darker As the search for scapegoats is turning on the Gypsy and hungarian minorities. You might think that after a half Century of communism people living in Eastern Europe would be sceptical of those offering the easy Way to the Good life. But you would be wrong. 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